Oversight czar blasts Treasury, but never mentions FINSOB?

posted at 4:00 pm on March 31, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Glenn Thrush reports at Politico that Congress’ “oversight czar” for the bailouts hasn’t gotten much cooperation from the Most Transparent Administration Evah. Elizabeth Warren told the Senate Finance Committee today that she needs a law passed that would require Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to talk to her. Apparently, no one in the committee realized that Treasury and the rest of the Obama administration has continued to break existing law on oversight:

Elizabeth Warren, the law professor appointed as Congress’s oversight czar on bank bailouts, blasted the Treasury Department — saying new legislation might be needed to give the House and Senate more access to details of the $700 billion rescue program.

Warren, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday morning, said keeping Congress in the loop isn’t a “priority” of Secretary Tim Geithner — and suggested a possible “next step” would be to pass legislation that would “require [Treasury] to consult” with her. …

She added that Treasury has given her “no articulation of what [the bailout] is supposed to accomplish” and lamented the fact that “we have no way to measure” its success.

Chuck Grassley told her that Congress ought to send a few Senators to accompany Warren on her next visit to get more cooperation. Maybe Grassley and Congress ought to demand that the Obama administration abide by existing law and have the Financial Stability Oversight Board (FINSOB) start meeting again. As I wrote eleven days ago, the Obama administration has not held a single meeting of FINSOB since Obama’s inauguration, despite a legal requirement to meet at least monthly:

In addition to the normal oversight provided by Congressional committees of jurisdiction, the Congress established four important avenues of oversight: one, the Financial Stability Oversight Board; two, the Special Inspector General; three, the Government Accountability Office; and four, the Congressional Oversight Panel. I will review Treasury’s interaction with each body in detail.

First, we moved immediately to establish the Financial Stability Oversight Board, which, by law, includes: the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The law required the first board meeting to take place within fourteen days. We moved very quickly, and the Oversight Board met within four days. At that initial meeting, the members of the Board selected Chairman Bernanke to be Chairman of the Oversight Board. The law requires the Board to meet once a month, but it has already met four times in the just two months since the law was signed, with numerous staff calls between meetings, and expects to meet again this week.

The Obama administration moved the records of FINSOB meetings to its new Financial Stability website, and the update confirms my earlier report that FINSOB has not met since January 15th, in clear violation of the TARP legislation. Congress demanded oversight and accountability for their massive outlays of funds to Treasury. The Bush administration responded, holding meetings almost every week when Hank Paulson was Treasury Secretary. His last FINSOB meeting was January 15th; Geithner has yet to chair a single FINSOB meeting.

Rather than pass more legislation, let’s have Congress enforce the laws on the books. We need to demand an answer as to why Geithner and Obama are avoiding oversight through FINSOB.

Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

So, can someone please point out how the Treasure, and Fed Reserve Bank, managed to borrow the money, or print the money, for the 12.5 TRILLION dollar bailout?

Congress only voted 700 Billion…. so… just where, Constitutionaly, does Geithner have the power to do what he is doing?

Wall Street set for best month in 6 years on tech, banks
Tuesday March 31, 2009, 2:29 pm EDT

Happy days are here again! Of course, the Dow used to be 14000… and my Wells Fargo stock that was $40 last fall, is now $13 because even though they are one of the most conservative banks, did all the right things (write off losses early, buy up Wachovia), they took the TARP $ that was shoved down their throats. But WTH, it’s the best month in 6 years! Yahoo!

Note to Ms. Warren: Geithner is da Man, he’s da Genius, he don’t need no oversight, he don’t need no assistants, he don’t need no czar, he don’t need no Congress, he don’t pay no taxes. He do what he wants. Capisci?

thanks…. knew about that… but I’m still trying to figure out where someone changed the Constitution to where Treasury, part of the Administration, could do what is a clearly deliniated Power and Responsibility, of the Congress?

thanks…. knew about that… but I’m still trying to figure out where someone changed the Constitution to where Treasury, part of the Administration, could do what is a clearly deliniated Power and Responsibility, of the Congress?

Here’s the problem,” Mr. Obama said, “It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.”

Oversight is for chumps who don’t hold the fate of the nation in their hands.

We need to demand an answer as to why Geithner and Obama are avoiding oversight through FINSOB.

Answer: Control.

bluelightbrigade on March 31, 2009 at 4:57 PM

This thread discussion pretty much explains why Geithner needs a lot of heavy curtains and door guards for his planning and decision-making. If McCain were President instead, I admit Phil Gramm would have required a similar “right to privacy” to shield the details behind the massive transfer of wealth from American taxpayer “whiners.”

Follow the instructions. Of course you can contact your congressmen for free but this works well and saves a lot of time if you want to reach more than one by fax (I sent 35 today) which is important to do RIGHT NOW due to how quickly Obama is pushing the spending. We must act JUST AS QUICKLY! Don’t forget thank those who hold strong and do not give in.

A word of warning: Do not base any of your conclusions on information from administration web sites. Everything on these sites is notoriously out of date. Go to the nominations page at whitehouse.gov, for example — most recent entry is dated Feb. 2. It’s entirely possible that FINSOB has been meeting and they just haven’t posted the meetings.